From a young age, Bill Esher was out in his backyard putting on his own theatrical productions with friends for his family and neighbors. He would charge his audience and with that money, he would get ice cream in his town. These productions would blossom into a passion that would become so much more than ice cream; his love of performing produced a dream for his future and he made it his reality.

While few are surprised to learn that Mr. Esher studied both dance and theater in college, You may be more shocked to learn about what he did in high school. As you may know, Mr. Esher is going into his seventh year at Hun as the Theater Director in the Performing Arts Department. What you may not know is that when Mr. Esher was the age that many of us are today, he was on the field rather than on the stage and in the studio. In fact, he was so involved with his athletics that he was nicknamed, “Crazy Esher” by his peers.

As students who know Mr. Esher to be a devoted theater director, envisioning him playing any kind of sport may be difficult. Surprisingly, he grew up with two parents who coached and played sports for most of their lives. The idea of Mr. Esher being an athlete doesn’t seem too crazy now, does it? His mom was an all-around athlete, playing hockey, basketball, and softball as her main sports. Her picture is still framed in Temple University’s Athletic Hall of Fame for setting a school record in basketball in 1953.

Although his parents were super athletically involved in their high school careers, Mr. Esher never felt forced to do sports. He chose to do them more for fun since he was naturally gifted with flexibility and agility, a skill he got to perfect through dance. In his youth, Mr Esher played football, basketball, and baseball in which the skills he learned in dance were especially helpful. This was a trait that Mr. Esher was consistently praised for, and the main reason why coaches from other sports would beg him to join their team. Soon enough, he became a starter in football and a prime example when doing agility drills.

How does dance help with this exactly? Well, in sports like football, dance can help make your muscles more flexible and durable, which helps with injury prevention and getting in and out of small places. A couple of the main focuses of dance are rhythm, timing, balance and coordination. These skills are beneficial on the field as they can assist players with footwork, speed, and increased reaction time. While agility drills help with these aspects of football as well, dance targets and stabilizes the smaller muscles in the body.

Mr. Esher only participated in doing dances in high school a couple of times, only really doing them in musicals. His high school schedule looked incredibly similar to ours. He would go to school, football, and then theater rehearsal, which would leave some room to relax afterward until study hall at 7:00. Mr. Esher got more involved in dance when he went to college and it was required for his major.

When Mr. Esher began to think about college and his future in general, he had two choices: Athletics or performing arts. Yet, when making his decision, he did it with ease. He knew by his junior year that pursuing a career in theater was what he was going to do. By quitting football his senior year, Mr. Esher had more time to pursue his passion for theater. 

Who knows? Maybe if our well-known theater director had taken a different path, he would have become our coach instead.